[alexmat]

From the FAQ, it seems like this is not as invasive as fingerprints:

"We selected palm recognition for a few important reasons. One reason was that palm recognition is considered more private than some biometric alternatives because you can’t determine a person’s identity by looking at an image of their palm."

[ben_w]

If that is understood to mean palm prints are less invasive than fingerprints, then it also means palm prints are less good at correctly identifying users.

I read that part of their statement as a comparison of data privacy (not invasiveness) with face recognition. I think the contactless part was about invasiveness.

[filoleg]

>If that is understood to mean palm prints are less invasive than fingerprints, then it also means palm prints are less good at correctly identifying users.

Not necessarily. Purely guessing here, but I think it is also partially guided by the idea that you leave your full fingerprints on objects quite often, no matter where you go. Touched something? You got a fingerprint left there.

With palm, how often do you press your full palm flat against something? And when you do it, it also gets rid of the natural curving of the palm that those air sensors detect (I assume). I can only think of door handles, but a lot of people don't use the full hand, and I think even out of those that do, they don't make full contact with the entirety of the door handle surface and their palm.

If that was their guiding idea, then it is possible to be just as good at correctly identifying users, while also being less invasive in terms of privacy. Also, with fingerprints, there are already plenty of databases that have it, like, if you ever applied for TSA Precheck or if you had to get those prints taken for immigration paperwork or for passport or whatever. But there is no giant existing database of your palm 3D scans. And, as opposed to face scan, you cannot be identified by someone just looking at that scan and then encountering you on the street.

[hughw]

That seems disengenuous? You can't determine a person's identity by looking at a fingerprint either. You have to match it against a database of them.

[ragebol]

Same as face recognition in that regard. It's just that humans are evolved to do wetware-accelerated face recognition very well. And not hand palm recognition. But for computers its all the same

[david-cako]

Hahahaha, my interpretation of this is that palm prints are proprietary and require less widely available technology to make use of them.

[oakesm9]

I took "biometric alternatives" to be referring to face recognition.

[retSava]

it's probably also less error prone - more area meaning more data to base the identity from. Also less fiddly.